Printing mechanism for recording devices



Aug. 31,1926,

6.. 5. WILEY PRINTING MECHANISM FOR RECORDING DEVICES G. G. WILEY PRINTING MECHANISM FOR RECORDING DEVICES Aug. 31,1926. 1,597,852

Filed Dec. 19, 1923 5 Sheets-Shet *2 Aug. 31,1926. 1 1,597,852

7 C5. C5. WRLEY PRINTING MECHANISM FOR RECORDING DEVICES Filed Dec, 19, 1923 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Aug 31 1926 G. G. WILEY PRINTING MECHANISM FOR RECORDING DEVICES Filed Dec. 19, 192: 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Aug. 31 1926. 1 1,597,852 G. G. WILEY v PRIJNTING MECHANISM FOR, RECQBDING DEVICES Filed Dec. 19, 1923 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 1 iifillmi Patented Aug. 31, 192%.

UNITED srarss rarest 'QFFICE.

GEORGE G. WILEY, OF CHTCAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO STBEETEB-AMET WEIGHING & RECORDING COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PRINTING MECHANISM FOR RECORDING DEVICES.

Applicationfiled December 19, 1923. Serial No. 681,540.

This invention relates to that class of weighing scales known as recording scales and more particularly to that class of recording scales known as track scales which are adapted to weigh cars and other vehicles during travel over the scale-platform.

The recording mechanism of this class of scales includes printing mechanism which is adapted to print, preferably upon a paper tape, the weight of the load on the scale platform, and the present invention relates, specifically, to the recording mechanism independently of the details of construction of the weighing mechanism.

The invention has for its main object to provide printing mechanism for the weight recording means or mechanisms of such scales or other apparatus which is adapted to prevent a plurality of imprints on the tape by rebounding action of theprinting hammer to thereby assure clear imprints on the tape; and to means for automatically effecting travel of the inked ribbon associated with the printing and tape feeding mechanisms to insure the presentation of different ribbon surface at each succeeding printing operation.

A suitable and preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the housing for the recording mechan sm of a scale of the general character above referred to, said mechanism being shown in elevation.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 22 of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a plan-section on the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the motor employed for feeding the tape.

Fig. 5 is an end elevation of the same.

Fig. 6 is a detail view in elevation of a speed governor employed.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view of the same on the line 77 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary detail vertical section on the line 8-8 of Fig. 3.

Figs. 9 and 10 are fragmentary detail sections on the lines 99 and 10-10, respectively, of Fig. 8.

Fig. 11 is a detail vertical section of the printing plunger on the line 1111 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 12 is a detail view illustrative of a modification of a part of the mechanism.

The scale-beam 1 of the weighing-scale is associated in any suitable manner withv the scale-platform, not shown, so that in response to load imposed upon the latter, the end-portion of said beam 1 shown in Figs. 1 and 2, will swing upwardly. By means of the rack-bar 2 meshing with the pinion 3 rigid with the shaft of the type-wheel l, (Fig. 2) the latter is rotatedthrough an arc determined by the load on the'platform to thereby dispose the number on said wheel corresponding to the weight in lbs. or multiples thereof, of the load on the platform, into vertical alignment with the printing plunger 5. In order that said beam 1 and wheel a may move gradually to and not swing beyond the aforesaid position, the scale-beam 1 is associated with the dash-pot 6 which is described in detail and constitutes the subject-matter of a copending application filed Dec. 19, 1923, SerialNo. 681,538.

The spring 7 exerts an initial pull on the beam contra to the dead-load rod, not shown, which is fully described in my copending application, filed Feb. 14, 1924, Serial No.

Associated with the scale-platform is a trip device shown conventially at 7* (Fig. 1), usually a track-lever, which is disposed contiguous to the delivery end of said platform and which is adapted to be actuated by the moving vehicle after the latter has been fully disposed on the scale-platform for a sufficient period of time to have permitted the type-wheel 4 to attain the abovementioned position ready to receive the blow of the printing plunger 5. The rod 7 (Fig. 1) is actuated by said trip-device and is operatively connected with the ratchet associated with the ratchet-wheel 8 (Fig. 3) for rotating the same through a given arc, which, in this instance, is one-eighth of a revolution. The ratchet 8 constitutes a part of the mechanism actuated by the passage of a car over a track lever associated with the scale-platform for resetting the printing plunger of the present mechanism following tripping thereof to record the car-weight as the first wheel of the latter is about to leave the scale platform, said ratchet being here shown only to establish association between the weighing mechanism per se and the weight recording mechanism herein more particularly illustrated and described. The ratchet wheel 8 is' rigid with '15 (Fig. 3

the cam 9 and disk 10, both of which are.

turned to a position to release and cause an impulse of the printing plunger and to thereafter, during succeeding lm-pulses of the trip-device by succeeding pairs of wheels of the vehicle, effect an automatic resetting of the printing plunger and associated elements, to normal or initial position. The details of construction of the trip-device and the mechanism associated therewith, exceptin so far as the cam 9 is concerned,forms no part of the present lnvent on, but constitutes the subject-matter of a copending' application, filed Feb. 14, 1924, Serial No, 692,647

It will be understood, of course, that if the cars or other vehicles to be weighed have four pairs of wheels each, the mechanism will be"four-cycle and in that case the cam 9 would have only two diametrically opposed points of greatest radius; whereas, if the mechanism'ls slx-cycle said cam 9 may have only one such point, but the ratchet 8 would have only six teeth in that case or a multiple of six for each additional such point of the cam 9. recesses 11 in the periphery of the disk 10 will always accord with the number of teeth of the ratchet 8. A spring-heldlever 12' carrying a. roller adapted to engage in the recesses 11, is associatedwith the disk 10 which is rigid with the ratchet 8, and serves to hold the latter yieldingly jin'the position to which it is moved successively, said lever 12 constituting no part of the present invention.

Associated with the cam 9 is a reciprocabl'e plunger 13 mounted in suitable guides.-

lt 'is provided at one end with a roller 14 which bears upon the periphery of the cam 9 under the constant tension of the spring On one side of said plunger 13 is a pin or roller 16 against which one arm of a bell-crank lever 17' normally bears, by reason of the tension exerted by the spring 18 associated with its other arm, the said lever 17 being pivotallysupported u pon a rigid frame element. 'The last-named arm of said lever 17 engages in a slot in the printing plunger 5 for projecting the latter against the peripheral face of the type-wheel 4.

The plunger 5 ismovablein the guide 19 from which the bifurcated projection 20' 'ae s- .P rqt ly errat d, between i s ends in said projection 20 1s a trip-lever 21,

The number of the lower end of WhiChis normally maintained by means of a spring 22, in the path of travel of the projecting portion of a shoe 23 mounted on the lower end of the plunger 5. The upper end-portion of said lever is disposed in the path of travel, in one direction, of a pin 2% mounted on the plunger 13, said pin also constituting the pivot of a pawl 25 maintained, by means of a spring 26, in engaging relation to the ratchet wheel 27.

The plunger 5 (Fig.11) has a control bore extending from its lower end into the slot in which the lever 17 engages, the lowermost end of said bore being threaded to receive the screw 28 which secures the shoe :23. A light compression spring 29 is supported upon the inner' end of the screw 28 and bears upon the lever 17.

T he portion of the pin 24, which'is adapted to trip the lever 21, is normally spaced from the latter so that when the cam 9 is retatcd through an eighth of a revolution (in the instance illustrated) and the plunger 18 thus caused to move toward the axis of said cam 9, the lever 17 will retain its normal position until approximately the moment that said plunger 13 attains the limit of its spring-actuated stroke, by the move ment of the lower end of the lever 21 out of the path of the shoe 23. It will be noted (Fig. 11) that there is a very appreciable space between the lower wall of the slot in the plunger 5 and the opposed face of the lever 17 engaging therein, so that the plunger 1s free to move to a greater extent than said lever 17 against the action of the spring 29. A stop 17 is provided to limit'the pivotal movement of the lever 17 as theplunger 5 is released, the pin or roller 16 having moved out of the path of the short arm of lever 17 before the latter is tripped. Thus the lever 17, through the agency of the spring 18, imparts an impulse to the plunger 5 suiiicient to cause the upper end of the latter to strike the face of the typewheel 4;. The lever 17in itself does not more the plunger a. sutlicient distance,'but mstead imparts a momentum which will act topompress the spring 29 and therefore uickly retract the plunger after the blow. Iihere ensues a sharp rebound, which is emphasized by the action of the spring 29, wh ch causes the upper wall of the slot to strike the upper face of the lever 17 and lmpart an impulse thereto against the action of the spring 18. This causes a rebound of the plunger 5 toward the typewheel which is, however, insufiicientin force to overcome the resistance of the spring 29 and thus a second blow upon the type-wheel is prevented.

The ratchet 27 is rigidly associated with I the ribbon take'-up reel 3O which causes a SliOIt length of ribbon to a; unwound iron the reel 31 which is manually rotatable, by means of the crank 32, to retrieve the ribbon from the reel 30 when the pawl 25 is disengaged from the ratchet 27. The ribbon 33 (an inked typewriter ribbon or the like) is trained over idle rolls 34 to cause a portion of the same to be disposed in a substantially horizontal plane between the face of the type-wheel 4 and the plane of travel of the paper tape 35 through what may be termed the printing plane, said ribbon and tape traveling in relatively transverse directions.

The tape 35 (Figs. 2 and 3) is unwound from the roll 36, suitably rotatably supported, upon which an idle roll 37 bears at a point somewhat in advance of the point at which it would normally leave the roll 36, by reason of its being trained over the more elevated idle roll 38, said roll 37 beingdisposed at the end of a swinging support 39 and gravity actuated so that, following the unwinding of a length of tape from the roll 36, during which (by reason of sudden tension on the tape) said roller 37 would be lifted, it will serve to unwind a short length of tape from the roll 36 to constitute what may be termed slack, but which is actually a low-tension length which is preferable to slack.

From said roll 38 the tape 35 passes over an inclined plate 40 and an idle roll 41 associated therewith. t is then trained over an idle roll 42, which, in the instance illustrated, is adapted to make a complete revolution following each printing operation. and is, therefore, so formed that its peripheral face is about one-half cylindrical and one-half polygonal, the last-named portion presenting. preferably, two equal faces disposed substantially perpendicularly to each other.

Said roll 42 is rigid with a cam 43 having a spiral face presenting a radial shoulder 44 connecting the terminals of the spiral. Said shoulder 44 is normally engaged with the projection 45 at one end of the triplever 46, pivotally supported between its ends and held in the aforesaid position by means of the spring 47. The shoulder 44 is disposed substantially in the diametric plane separating the cylindrical from the polygonal portion of the face of the roll 42 and is disposed diametrically opposite a pair of pins 48 (Fig. 5) projecting from the face of said roll for perforating the tape 35.

The latter is connected with the motor actuated take-up roll 49 which is so located relatively to the normal position of the roll 42 and cam 43 as to maintain the tape 35 trained over the sharp corner formed at the junction of the flat-face portions of said roll 42, the latter coacting with the pins 48 to prevent the tape from slipping under the influence of the constant tension exerted by the take-up roll 49. The shaft 50 of the latter carries the spur pinion 51 (Fig. 3) which meshes with the spur gear 52 associated, in a well-known manner, as in a clock, with the spring 53 which actuates it and is adapted to be wound up by means of the crank 54. Rigid with the spur-pinion 51 is a spur-gear 55 which meshes with a pinion 56 (Fig. 4) on the governor shaft 57 carrying the radial arms 58 (Figs. 5 and 6) on which brake-shoes 59 are freely reciprocable, the lat-ter being normally maintained at approximately the outer limits of their movement by means of the springs 60. Normally one, at least, of said brake-shoes 59 is in contact with the cylindrical surface of the annular flange 61 of the motor frame and thus, in addition to the normal inertia of the motor parts, a very sudden acquisition of momentum by the take-up roll upon tripping the lever 46 will cause said brakeshoes 59 to be thrown outwardly by centrifugal force to bear sufficiently on said flange 61 to retard the speed of rotation of the said take-up roll. The speed of rotation of the take-up roll 49 is limited by the brakeaction of the shoes 59 under the influence of the centrifugal force which causes them to hear more forcibly against the surrounding flange as the speed of rotation of the shaft 57 increases. Owing to the small radial dimensions of the idle-roll 42, and the proportionately larger and constantly increasing diameter of the tape-roll wound upon the take-up roll 49, the rotation of the latter is never in excess of and is usually only a part of a revolution for each complete revolution of the idle-roll 42. Consequently, said roll 49 could not, even independentlyof the retarding action of the brake or governor mechanism, acquire any great degree of. momentum, though that might become sufficient to exceed the tension-strength of the tape 35 in the absence of frictional retard.

The trip-lever 46 is adapted to be actuated by the hammer-element 62 (Fig. 1) pivotally secured, by means of the screw 63, to the lever 17 adjacnt the pivot of the lat ter. One end of said hammer-element 62 is offset away from, but to extend substantially parallel with the arm of lever 17 en gaging in the slot of the plunger 5 and is of such length as to terminate contiguously to the end of said arm. The short end of the hammer-element 62 terminates in an inclined surface or shoulder which normally abuts, by gravity, against the hub 64 of said lever 17, which constitutes a stop to limit the pivotal movement of said hammer-element in one direction relatively to the latter.

One end portion of said trip-lever 46 is disposed in the path of the longer-end poracquires a momentum which causes it to swing relatively to the lever 17 and impart a tripping impact to the lever 46. Thereupon the idle-roll l2 makes its revolution.

Following the tripping of the lever 21 as the cam 9 is given its primary impulse, the

printing stroke is imparted to the plunger 5 and the tape 35 is then set in motion. The

.type-wheelis again free to rotate as the plunger 5 does not maintain the ribbon 33 in contact therewith to retard it. The function of the spring-actuated stroke of the plunger 13 is now completed and it is then ready to be reset. As soon as the second (in this instance, the last) pair of wheels of the car aetuates the trackdever (not shown) to effect another one-eighth revolution of the cam .9, the said plunger 13-is'reset against the action of the spring and during-this "return movement the pawl actuates the ratchet 27- to effect movement of the ribbon- 533.- The bell-crank lever 17 is reposi-' tioned by the pin 16 and thereby the printing plunger 5 and trip' lever 21 are also '"returned' to the position shown in Fig. 1

and the whole mechanism is now ready for the neXt succeeding operation.

The idle-roll 12 is shaped as shown when 1131s desiredto efiect travel of the maximum length of tape between printing operations and may be varied in contour to adapt it for feeding fractions of said maximum length. This would necessitate a corresponding variation in the cam 43 as particularly illustrated in Fig. 12.

' broughtto oppose the plunger 5.. the movingload actuates the aforesaid track-lever, thereby causing the cam 9: to be'rotated through one-half the arc separating the point of contact of the roller 14: therewith from the nextsucceeding similar point.

The spring 15 causes the plunger 13 to move toward the axis of the cam during this partial rotation of the latter and this causes the pin 16 to move away from the engaging arm of the bell-crank lever 17, thereby rendering the latter free to be actuated by the spring 18, this actuation following tripping of the lever 21 by the pin 21 and effecting a printing blow of the plunger 5 against the face of the type-wheel 1 through the tape 35 and ribbon 33, to thereby effect imprint of the weight indication on said tape 35;

The actuation of the'bell-crank lever 17*,

as aforesaid, ca'uses" it to hit the stop 17 before the plunger 5 attains the upper limit of its movement, and thus causes the hammer-element 62 to trip the lever i6 at approximately the instant that the plunger 5 imparts the printing-blow. the motor effects short travel of the tape 30. The resetting of plunger 13,and associated parts and the movement of'the ribbon then occurs to complete. the whole cycle of operations. I

It willjbe obvious, of course, that the details of construction of the embodiment shown and described, are capable of variation and are, therefore, to be regarded only as exemplary of a suitable embodiment of the invention without limitation to specific details, except in so far as the latter are. included in the invention as defined in the appended claims. I

I claim as my invention:

1. In a recording scale, record-printing means including a reciprocable plunger provided with a slot, .a spring housed in said plunger and projecting into said slot, 21

spring-actuated lever engaging in said slot and engaged with the spring housed thereby formaintaining said plunger normally at one limit of its movement relatively to Thereupon said plunger, a stop for limiting the movement of said lever in the direction to move sa1d plunger to effect printlng of a record to a point less than sufficient to maintain said plunger at the limit of its movement I in said direction, whereby the spring housed by said plunger coacts with said-lever to effect partial retraction of said plunger following its actuation by said lever, said actuation being partly against the retarding action of said housed spring.

2. In a recording scale, the combination of a printing means for printing weight records on .a tape and including a type carrying member and a normally latched plunger adapted when released tobe projected against said member to print a record, a normally latched spring controlled shift-ing, device for .afiecting, when released, the projecting of the plunger, means arranged within the plunger and coacting with said device to provide for the rebound of the plunger, a latching means for normally holding said plunger in a predetermined position against the projecting action of said device, and a combined releasing and setting mechanism common to said device and means.

3. In a recording scale, the combination of a printing means for printing weight records on a tape and including a type carrying member and a normally latched plunger adapted when released to be projected against said member to print a record, a normally latched spring controlled shifting device for affecting, when released, the

projecting of the plunger, means arranged Within the plunger and coacting with said device to provide for the rebound of the plunger, a latching means for normally holding said plunger in a predetermined position against the projecting action of said. device, a combined releasing and setting mechanism common to said device and means, a guide for said plunger, and said device and means connected to said guide.

4. In a recording scale, the combination of a printing means for printing Weight records on a tape and including a type carrying member and a normally latched plunger adapted when released to be projected against said member to print a record, a normally latched spring controlled shifting device for affecting, when released, the projecting of the plunger, means arranged within the plunger and coacting With said device to provide for the rebound of the plunger, a latching means for normally holding said plunger in a predetermined position against the projecting action of said device, a combined releasing and setting mechanism common to said device and means, a guide for said plunger, said device and means connected to said guide, and a stop carried by said guide for said device.

5. In a recording scale, in combination, a slotted printing plunger, a guide therefor, a shoe carried at one end of the plunger, a spring controlled latching lever pivotally carried by the guide and engaging With the shoe to maintain the plunger normally in a retracted position, a normally latched spring controlled shitting lever for and extending through the slot of the plunger, and means for shifting said levers from normal position to provide for the operation of the plunger.

6. In a recording scale, in combination, a slotted printing plunger, a guide therefor, a shoe carried at one end of the plunger, a

spring controlled latching lever pivotally carried by the guide and engaging with the shoe to maintain the plunger normally in a retracted position, a normally latched spring controlled shifting lever for and extending through the slot of the plunger, and a reciprocating member for alternately releasing and setting said levers,

GEORGE G. WILEY. 

